96
drank Lavender Assam by Octavia Tea
4169 tasting notes
A sample from Octavia tea! Thanks so much! I’m slowly making my way through the samples… I love a good lavender tea and this is certainly LAVENDER. I’m loving that the strength of the lavender is matched with the strength of the black tea. I think the lavender flavor is from the flowers included in the blend, but also might be some sort of flavoring? It’s just so strong for having maybe fifteen to twenty pieces of lavender in the serving. The assam is tasty, malty and brisk, but a little difficult to taste under the lavender. But I can tell the assam is high quality – very long completely black leaves. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a traditional assam from India with leaves this long. However, the photo for the tea shows some golden leaves and I definitely don’t have any gold leaves in my sample. Both steeps taste exactly the same. I always appreciate finding the perfect parameters for resteeps. Strong but not bitey on either steep – peppery! I love that the flavor is perfect for warmer months, but I love the black tea base when I want something strong. Dainty and tough. It’s also a very tasty flavor combination with fig cookies. A lavender black tea is essential for my cupboard and this one is great.

Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 22 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 1/2 minute steep

Kittenna

Dangit! You keep reviewing delicious-sounding Octavia teas! Were they doing a sample promo at some point? I’ve discovered that they have $3 samples on their site, just now….

tea-sipper

I actually asked them for a sample of French Breakfast… and I never ask for samples unless a company is offering… and they sent me oodles of samples to review. I completely didn’t expect that and it was AWESOME of them. They don’t have many reviews on their site, so I’m posting both octaviatea.com and on Steepster. You can try passing them an e-mail, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind sending you samples.

Kittenna

I’ve made a cart, but shipping is $13 because Canada. Sadness. I wish they had a free shipping threshold for Canada, as I could easily be convinced to order more and hit it.

tea-sipper

Ack, that is no good. I was going to say some of their teas are on Amazon but checking Canada, the prices seem ridiculous…

Kittenna

Hmm, maybe I’ll try emailing them! I wouldn’t expect free shipping on samples to Canada, but shipping would be a small amount to pay if the samples are free.

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Comments

Kittenna

Dangit! You keep reviewing delicious-sounding Octavia teas! Were they doing a sample promo at some point? I’ve discovered that they have $3 samples on their site, just now….

tea-sipper

I actually asked them for a sample of French Breakfast… and I never ask for samples unless a company is offering… and they sent me oodles of samples to review. I completely didn’t expect that and it was AWESOME of them. They don’t have many reviews on their site, so I’m posting both octaviatea.com and on Steepster. You can try passing them an e-mail, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind sending you samples.

Kittenna

I’ve made a cart, but shipping is $13 because Canada. Sadness. I wish they had a free shipping threshold for Canada, as I could easily be convinced to order more and hit it.

tea-sipper

Ack, that is no good. I was going to say some of their teas are on Amazon but checking Canada, the prices seem ridiculous…

Kittenna

Hmm, maybe I’ll try emailing them! I wouldn’t expect free shipping on samples to Canada, but shipping would be a small amount to pay if the samples are free.

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Bio

Hi! I love tea and trying new ones – it adds a bit of variety to my day! Books, music, TV & movies are my thing… and tea, of course.

Some of my favorite tea shops (still operating):
birdandblendtea.com
teavivre.com
52teas.com
svtea.com
whisperingpinestea.com
justea.com
harney.com
Dammann Freres
fusionteas.com
Javateaco.com
Lupicia
Octaviatea.com
Davidstea
eco-cha.com
what-cha.com
singleoriginteas.com
teasenz.com
tealyra.com
Mandala
verdanttea.com

Favorite tea shops (RIP):
butikiteas.com
steapshoppe.com
steepcityteas.com
aquartertotea.com
dellaterrateas.com
zentealife.com
angrytearoom.com
theteamerchant.net
joysteaspoon.com
tealiciousllc.com
Rivertea
Specialteas

My icon photo is Richard Mayhew from the graphic novel ‘Neverwhere’ by Neil Gaiman, Mike Carey & Glenn Fabry.

Most of the teas listed in my cupboard are actually sample sizes. I don’t really have 2,000 ounces of tea around here! Many of my teas have only one teaspoon left… maybe two. But I like keeping them in my cupboard list for reference to what I could be sipping. Usually, I write tasting notes once for each tea. I’m still drinking them, just not writing tasting notes each time!

I’m always in search of: Hattialli, Qu Hao black, Jin Jun Mei, teas using marshmallow root.

My dislikes: hibiscus, ginger (unless in chai), turmeric, bee pollen, charcoal type flavors

My ratings:
95-100 – Super awesome deliciousness favorites – cupboard essential
80-95 – Also pretty delicious
65-80 – Pretty good
50-65 – Okay
1-50 – Probably won’t want to sip it again

I’m planning on being a Steepsterer as long as there IS a Steepster, so if you’re not hearing from me, that means something happened to my health… if you know what I mean. (Or as evidenced by the great computer hiatus of 2019, something happened to my computer… I have a dumb phone so can’t access internet on that. As of 12/20/21 my wifi might start getting unreliable.)

Happy sipping!

Location

USA

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